Dick Dilling was Vice-President for Marketing and Sales of Interface Mechanisms (now Intermec Technologies) from 1971 to 1982 the days before there was any established market for the then curiosity known as bar codes. In 1971, Dr. David Allais (an AIDC 100 member) of the company had invented a keyboard driven printer to produce pressure sensitive labels with the Plessey bar code, used with library systems in the UK.
In the 70s, when the firms only product was this printer, at MHI trade shows, visitors would ask, Why would I want that device? The answers became easier when Intermec developed its own wand scanners and displays. Dick was tireless in his constant efforts to promote and find uses for the new technology.
When AIM became an independent trade group, Dick was elected as the Vice-President; and his energy and enthusiasm were utilized in planning and staging in 1982 the first of the very successful Scan-Tech trade shows, which he repeated in 1983. Shortly thereafter he succumbed to cancer. In his honor and memory, AIM established in 1984 the Dilling Award given annually to an individual within the industry who has rendered outstanding service in the promotion of AIDC